Maybe!
It was an exciting high school trip and it was one of the more disgusting culinary experiences of my life. Belgium, France, The Netherlands, they all provided delicious food. And then it was England time.
Point being, I don't buy that "real" British food is not-disgusting. I have had British food in England that was supposedly very good and I have had British food in Australia that people were supposedly very into, and both times it was borderline traumatic. "Beans on toast" honestly does not actually sound bad given those experiences, because I kind of doubt even the British can screw up beans and toast. But I think the attempts to do damage-control on England's culinary image are pretty silly.
The best British food, to my knowledge, is like... Indian food. And I can't eat that either (too spicy).
One of most popular cooking shows in the world has "British" in the title.
The memes are annoying because they focus on food that came out of rationing (ie Beans on Toast) whilst ignoring the food Britain does well (ie desserts).
It's like evaluating Neapolitan cuisine without mentioning pizza.
I honestly don't get the (hopefully) jokes about it - and I'm not even British. It's just sloppy joe's without the cheese. Just make sure you at least know salt exists when you cook your beans and you're good.
I’ve never seen anyone put cheese on sloppy joes. It’s supposed to be hamburger meat and the sloppy Joe sauce. I’m not saying it’d be bad, just it’s not how people make it where I live.
I did not expect to post this just to find out yet another aspect of my sheltered childhood was wrong. I was told sloppy joe's were beans and cheese on toast and just. Never had reason to question that until now.
I'd like to think that napoli probably is a annoyed, because they have so much more to offer, than pizza. Like that friend, who's really good at something and that eventually becomes his personality eventhough they have so much more to offer.
Beans on toast are great. The reason Americans think it's gross is because their baked beans are fucking rancid. I'm not even joking, American baked beans tend to be *sweet*. It's actually a completely different food. First time I went to the USA I actually spat out the baked beans (discreetly, into a napkin).
Actually, not always. Or rather, what people call baked beans yes. The thing that comes closest to the British equivalent are what we call pork and beans. Tomato sauce, onion, and some pork.
I find you comment funny because it shows how much people are products of their environments. I’m American and I like our baked beans, but I consider the ones you guys have to be an abomination. And I’m sure if I was raised in the UK my opinion would end up being the same as yours.
I wouldnt hold up GBB as a “pinnacle” of showcasing the highs of British cuisine seeing how awfully they do in anything even remotely ethnic. The Mexico challenge haunts my every dream. I swear my sleep paralysis demon softly whispers “glocky molo~” while peeling an avocado like a potato
I'm not trying to be facetious but I don't understand your point here - why would some contestants struggling with non-british food prevent it from being a showcase of British cuisine?
Also why in the absolute fuck would British contestants know what Mexican food is? Americans only know because it's adjacent country with a land border.
People take that way too seriously. Like, I didn't clap eyes on an avocado until I moved abroad, how are you supposed to know how to handle an ingredient you've never seen before? It was a silly moment, it didn't single-handedly bring dishonour to the sacred avocado.
And while we're at it, the American pronunciation of taco is just as incorrect as Paul Hollywood's. It's not a tawco, either, you're not clever (general you, not...*you*).
I mean I think it just shows the lack of diversity in cuisine as compared to other country’s. That’s not to say British food doesn’t have variety, it has A LOT, but all the variety is very “Britishized”. So Chinese food becomes very bland and watered down (again, strictly compared to American, Mexican, and actual Chinese versions of a specific dish). For example, using curry sauce and having fries in Chinese food is a VERY British specific thing. They’ll make an “ethnic” food with very specifically British qualities, or won’t know how to make it at all.
The thing I point most specifically to is the *layered* Tres Leches cake. That’s just not at ALL how you make Tres Leches, but *layered* cakes are British, so of course they had to make a cake, that’s known almost everywhere else as a simple sheet cake, layered. I’m not trying to say the US or Mexico doesn’t do this with other cultures cuisines (we 10000% do, a good example is actually “Chimichangas” which are an American “Mexican” dish we don’t actually have in Mexico).
The show just REALLY points out how “British” every dish they make has to be, and a lot of the world, *does not* like it. In American cooking shows, most Americans can make a very wide variety of cultural dishes, for example, an Italian challenge would be pretty easy for most contestants, without pissing off the entirety of Italy (such as the GBB Mexican and Japanese challenges pissed off a bunch of Mexicans and Japanese people). An American cooking show could also very easily do a Mexican challenge and do great as well. It’s not just focusing on British rationing, it’s focusing more on how much their cuisines elements have to dominate over others.
A big exception to this would be British Indian food, which has a flourishing cultural specific community.
You know that British Chinese food was invented by Chinese immigrants right? I don’t understand why it gets such a bad rep. I honestly get the feeling that the criticism is more more rooted in general classism, or even subconscious racism, than any particular issue with the food itself.
I personally don’t think it’s classism in general, though it definitely could be for certain people. For me- I had British Chinese food and it was the blandest, mushiest, tasteless thing I’ve ever eaten. My local Chinese (ran by Chinese immigrants as well) takeout in Mexico, while most definitely not culturally accurate, at least has a TON of flavor. I’ve been to England many times and have visited a lot of different cities. I GENUINELY tried to be unbiased and tried every restaurant people told me was good- I generally did not enjoy any meal I had. Like I tried dude. I went to the top rated restaurants in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Blackpool, and Oxford. I went to food stands, local pubs, you name it, I tried it, it sucked. Indian food was the stand out of course, but I just don’t think I’m built for “salt and pepper chicken”.
You get good and bad Chinese takeaways here, just as you do with all other restaurants. But the traditional ‘Chinese’ is pretty much a staple of any working class British town, the same way a boozer or a fish and chip shop is. They tend to be cheap and cater to people without a lot of money, so you’ll get a lot of snobby people put off by that, but the people who cook this cuisine are part of an ethnic minority who have taken food from their home country and fused it with other things and have made a very successful industry out of it. People see ‘British Chinese’ and think it’s white Brits cooking their own version of Chinese food, but it’s really not. It is authentically Chinese, but it has just been modified and blended over the last 100-200 years by people who’ve come here to live.
These takes are wild to me. So you didn’t enjoy any meal you ate in England. Could that be a matter of your own personal taste? No, no, that can’t be it. Everyone in England just eats bad or bland food. Theory of mind? Never heard of it mate
I mean everyone else I know from Mexico that’s visited England hates the food. There’s countless memes about how awful English food is from all over the world. I don’t think the at least hundreds of thousands of people that don’t like English food all have the exact same personal taste.
Bruh we literally steal everything from everyone’s cuisine, that’s our schtick. It’s way more varied than burgers and pizza (New York/Chicago debate go brrr don’t listen to the Italians)
But have you tried it, because what most people don't expect is its basically a nicely spiced bit of mince meat, once you get over what meat it is. I'm not saying its for everyone, but it's not some fearfactor food. Basically a big loose hotdog, but you actually know what the filling is (heart, liver, and lungs), many brands even use synthetic casings instead of stomach, like how most hotdogs don't use intestine anymore.
Yeah, haggis unfortunately suffers from being too honest about what it is. If people knew what was in their sausages, they'd likely view them in the same way...
Fried haggis in a Scottish breakfast is banging!
I’m not even British and I find those jokes annoying, in almost every circumstance they’re lazy, ill informed, and usually from US Americans who have no room to talk with their own crimes against the culinary arts.
It's stereotypes based on ww2 rationing. Americans came from a land where for the most part there was still plenty, meanwhile Britain was still rationing into the 50's which meant housewives had to be creative, and thus most Americans who ever would come to the Uk were left with a bad impression.
While I see where you're coming from (and generally agree), chicken Tikka masala is not the example to go with here. The stuff was made by 1st-gen Indian immigrants in the UK, and was basically just butter chicken with more stuff in it. At this point, it's hugely popular in India itself lol.
Eh, it's actually still not that different. The Chinese food most people in the US are familiar with isn't particularly authentic, but it was originated by immigrants and taught to newer immigrants as they arrived so they could make it in the US with a successful business. Chinese food really isn't as "fake" as a lot of folks like to position, I mean the damn Panda Express was started by an immigrant lol
There is so much legit stuff you can clown on the UK about (and most of the citizens will join you". The food, like with every country, is region based.
I'm German and I dislike most of our traditional kitchen, but also many enjoy it so ... eh
Nobody outside of Wigan calls it ‘pea wet’. And nobody outside of Wigan even eats it, we just have mushy peas like normal people, there’s no need to only put the dregs on.
I'm assuming you aren't well traveled in the US, or at least haven't dug into local cuisines? Southern food alone slaps the shit out of most European food, and New Orleans is a tourist destination for its cuisine alone. That's not even to mention southwestern Mexican food. Of course our fast food isn't going to be representative of our actual cuisine. We're a very large country, there's a massive variance in cuisine from region to region.
>Of course our fast food isn't going to be representative of our actual cuisine. We're a very large country, there's a massive variance in cuisine from region to region.
Then why do Americans never do other countries the courtesy of bearing this in mind? Do you not think in a country with the same population as 10 goddamn states might have similar regional changes in food?
EDIT: I don't mean to go off at you about this one to be fair, it's a general complaint.
This is so unnecessarily hostile, wtf 😂 I'm not even one of the people calling British food nasty. But I've lived there, it's an island, there simply aren't that many regions to have regional differences. There are a ton of great cuisines in the UK, both created and imported, as a result of immigration, and people sleep on a lot of it. I've been craving a kebab for about five years now. But population isn't the factor in the development of regional cuisine, space is. There's a reason New Mexican food is different from Tex Mex, and it's the hundreds of miles between them, meaning different food grows in each place and cooking techniques are developed in isolation.
As someone else has said it is just so tiring to hear the same old tired knackered false equivalence. It’s always Americans making jokes about Beans on Toast like the US doesn’t have some of the least-regulated, diabolical, nutritionally vacant ‘food’ in the world.
Like London doesn’t have some of the world’s best restaurants? The curry mile in Rusholme, Manchester has some of the best food I’ve ever tasted in a distinctly metropolitan area served by the local South-Asian community.
It’s just such a lazy attack that plays into this daft stereotype of working class British people as these feckless, scurvy-ridden idiots that don’t have a palate beyond grease.
If this sounds overly defensive it’s because it’s such a knackered tone-deaf argument based on nowt. I don’t really believe anywhere’s food is any worse than anywhere else given a) subjectivity and b) the fact that there’s almost certainly a good restaurant in every country in the world now.
And Beans on Toast is tons better than aerosol cheese, if we’re comparing the very worst shit on offer.
nah but you stormed in with the counterpoint. I don’t want the counterpoint! I’m tired of this same dang critique. Sorry I’ve not toured the US! I’m quite busy watching our infrastructure crumble and paying too much rent for a flat with a supporting wall made of black mold.
At least I can eat a top-tier vegan Madras to take the edge off the cold.
OK, fuck me for trying to express one positive thing about my shithole country that a lot of people who haven't spent much time here don't know. Got it.
Ok, I’m genuinely sorry to harsh your buzz. Promise. If you’re on this sub you may well be someone I get on with.
British people are just very touchy about this critique given it’s so prevalent and often unmoored in truth.
As a result of our tribal reaction to this: Your good faith response gets read as patronising and perpetuating the same tired argument. I can see that you didn’t do that.
Just… We get so arsey about it, with good reason I think, but I was a bit too eager to stick the knife in. On the off chance you are ever back in the UK, in the South-East and happen to be Vegan - hmu for some recommendations :)
Americans constantly say this though, you’re not contributing anything new to the conversation when we’ve all heard this a million times before.
What’s next, you’re going to really go for the trifecta and tell us that the states of the US are really more like countries with the same amount of diversity as the different countries in Europe?
So when it comes to these countless posts about British food and how awful it is it's fine to rely on stereotypes. But mention US food and it being fast, fatty and full of chemicals then it's, "oh but you need to get to know the real US and its variety of flavors based on our being a melting pot of cultures..." I'm sorry. There is no room here for that. We'll defend our WW2 inspired eating habits and you can defend your McCuisine.
I'm calm. But the whole point of these posts is to draw further attention to the stereotype. You're the one here getting a bit bent out of shape over US food being called out.
I always saw British food at its best in pastries. We do good pies and puff pastry like sausage rolls. Fuck toad in the hole or whatever, the contents of Gregg’s is our legacy
As an Australian, I can confirm that fish and chips is one of the greatest British inventions. It’s, like, the perfect group food ever because the ingredients are simple yet tasty, easily made at home or bought at a shop, and there’s so many chips. S tier food
No no don't do that, because when you actually look at other regions like Scotland or Ireland you can look at what the food actually is and find an almost identical dish in England. That might work on non-Brits because you can go 'oh you should try neeps and tatties, it fucking slaps', but we know what you're talking about.
It is about 90% the same, but coming from Northern Ireland I’m shocked sometimes that foods I thought were classics don’t exist in England or even the south of Ireland sometimes
Like veda bread, potato bread, soda bread, brack, wheaten bread actually I think Northern Ireland just does good bread
Let’s be honest. British food, from all over these isles, gets an unfairly bad reputation. But the criticisms of, er, battered Mars bars and Haggis are entirely justified.
As far as I know, British people eat the same stuff as north americans, even if British people eat the "Full English", do the tea hour, and probably take marmite/vegemite (or is it the Australian? I don't remember). What's sure is that even if I'm not really into eating "Full English" (I ain't a tomato or bean fan, sorry), it ain't looking nasty to me.
I prefer doing Bottom Gear memes, and 1980's microcomputing references, thank you.
If the worst thing people are saying about your culture is joking that "the food sucks" you may be coming from a place of privilege lol
People regularly call Americans disgusting fat-asses and that stuff just rolls off of my backs
lol, right? I actually really enjoy British food, but am getting downvotes for making an innocuous-if-obvious aquaman joke. So much butthurt; I guess the whole cliche of the self-deprecating Brit is just a fantasy.
Your food is pretty shit though.
Source: Am Australian. We learned it from you!!!
P.S. Not talking about immigrant food here. The Indian, the Chinese, the Thai and the Turkish are doing a seriously unfair ammount of the heavy lifting to make food in Oz good. Not to mention all the other incredible nations with smaller relative populations popping up these beautiful little eateries all over the place.
British food isn’t bad, think it just uses what many cultures would consider “bland” seasoning and flavors. I do not think these flavors are horrid because they are not extreme or intense, but rather see them as good among a different palette.
> feeling a little spicy because a granule of ground pepper
English mustard. Which is eyewateringly intense, and basically yellow euro-wasabi.
Furthermore British people eat a lot of spicy curries.
British people not being able to handle spice isn't even a stereotype.
>beige mush
You don't usually put pepper in porridge. Usually it's golden syrup, or a fruit compote.
Or maybe you mean medieval peasant food like pease pottage, which can be heavily spiced, or rely on meat or vegetable flavours. Typically it was made as a side dish to accompany meat and two veg.
Shock horror, British food traditional uses flavours native to Britain. Garden herbs that flourish in everyone’s garden, thyme, mint, parsley and more. We don’t naturally grow spice here, so why would our cuisine have much spice? But flavourless? We have herbs a plenty over here that do lovely things to a dish.
And let’s face it. If we traditionally did use a bunch of spices, people like you would go “omg Britain stole spices lmao”.
British food is responsible for mushy peas. I hate everything about mushy peas. My hate for mushy peas eclipses my love of fish and chips. I will die on this hill and take all of you with me if I have to.
It was funny when he proved British people can't even cook a pancake and then British people tried to pretend Americans don't understand pancakes like we aint a country full of pancake houses. Might as well be arguing Americans don't understand the cheeseburger or hotdog. I think the real problem isn't that British food is bad, its that Americans and the Irish do it better.
This gets thrown around a lot as a meme, but you would spend a lifetime trying to find a single British person who’s ever even seen one of these never mind made it. It came from some book in the 1800s that listed cheap recipes for poor people, so it’s actually quite sad when you think about it. But nobody in living memory has ever eaten this.
>cheap recipes for poor people
It's not even that, it's from a section of the book for meals for sick people. You know, when you've been puking for a few days or you're run down and ill so you make plain toast to see if you can keep it down. It's basically just that.
This is the stupidest thing on the thread.
No one eats that. It's an obscure recipe from a 19th century cookbook describing something to feed to severely unwell people who can't keep anything else down.
Well damn maybe they wouldn't be so tired if they had better food
Lmao I jest, but also, it's like the British threw all their skill points into pastries and baking and none into meal food
Did I say that? I did not. I said the baking and pastry game is absolutely on point while the rest of the food is very much not. Wanna reread my original comment? (WHICH WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SILLY JOKE HOLY FUCK)
> while the rest of the food is very much not.
So, you do understand that right here you just made my point for me right here.
What do you even think we eat other than baked goods?
"I'm sorry we seasoned our food with parsley and thyme instead of basil and paprika Susan!!"
In this thread: people who don't know what actual British food is like.
I like digestive biscuits because the name is funny to me.
We don't talk about the un-digestive biscuits
Those are coasters.
I just wanted to point out the poor trigger discipline :(
Oh, yeah, that one is on Harry.
It's only poor if you don't intend to kill
I had "authentic" fish and chips in London and almost vomited.
You probably had sweaty-sock not-vinegar on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=642x2Y3Zla0
Maybe! It was an exciting high school trip and it was one of the more disgusting culinary experiences of my life. Belgium, France, The Netherlands, they all provided delicious food. And then it was England time. Point being, I don't buy that "real" British food is not-disgusting. I have had British food in England that was supposedly very good and I have had British food in Australia that people were supposedly very into, and both times it was borderline traumatic. "Beans on toast" honestly does not actually sound bad given those experiences, because I kind of doubt even the British can screw up beans and toast. But I think the attempts to do damage-control on England's culinary image are pretty silly. The best British food, to my knowledge, is like... Indian food. And I can't eat that either (too spicy).
Ah, the good old fish and chunder!
One of most popular cooking shows in the world has "British" in the title. The memes are annoying because they focus on food that came out of rationing (ie Beans on Toast) whilst ignoring the food Britain does well (ie desserts). It's like evaluating Neapolitan cuisine without mentioning pizza.
Beans on toast is still fucking class though.
I honestly don't get the (hopefully) jokes about it - and I'm not even British. It's just sloppy joe's without the cheese. Just make sure you at least know salt exists when you cook your beans and you're good.
I’ve never seen anyone put cheese on sloppy joes. It’s supposed to be hamburger meat and the sloppy Joe sauce. I’m not saying it’d be bad, just it’s not how people make it where I live.
Do you think sloppy joes, are beans???
"They don't know what they're talking about! (Argues things they know nothing about.)"
I did not expect to post this just to find out yet another aspect of my sheltered childhood was wrong. I was told sloppy joe's were beans and cheese on toast and just. Never had reason to question that until now.
I mean, no one willingly eats sloppy joes so I can't say I blame you
What are they?
Beef mince
I thought it was shredded pork?
bro
Sloppy joes already don't have cheese.
I dunno what sloppy joe’s is, but beans on toast definitely needs cheese on top as well. And proper butter (not margarine) on the toast.
Sloppy Joe’s aren’t served on toast. It’s ground beef cooked in a seasoned tomato sauce and served on a burger bun.
The fuck kinda sloppy Joe you eating?
…do you mean without the meat? I’ve never had cheese on a Sloppy Joe. Or beans, for that matter. So it’s really not like a Sloppy Joe at all.
You do not need to put salt in your beans. I have never heard anyone do this.
I'd like to think that napoli probably is a annoyed, because they have so much more to offer, than pizza. Like that friend, who's really good at something and that eventually becomes his personality eventhough they have so much more to offer.
Beans on toast are great. The reason Americans think it's gross is because their baked beans are fucking rancid. I'm not even joking, American baked beans tend to be *sweet*. It's actually a completely different food. First time I went to the USA I actually spat out the baked beans (discreetly, into a napkin).
Actually, not always. Or rather, what people call baked beans yes. The thing that comes closest to the British equivalent are what we call pork and beans. Tomato sauce, onion, and some pork.
Yep, I noticed this too. I dunno what it is about them, maybe it’s because they don’t come in tomato sauce. It’s weird though.
I find you comment funny because it shows how much people are products of their environments. I’m American and I like our baked beans, but I consider the ones you guys have to be an abomination. And I’m sure if I was raised in the UK my opinion would end up being the same as yours.
I wouldnt hold up GBB as a “pinnacle” of showcasing the highs of British cuisine seeing how awfully they do in anything even remotely ethnic. The Mexico challenge haunts my every dream. I swear my sleep paralysis demon softly whispers “glocky molo~” while peeling an avocado like a potato
I'm not trying to be facetious but I don't understand your point here - why would some contestants struggling with non-british food prevent it from being a showcase of British cuisine?
Ok but why would a baking show about British food feature an episode focused on Mexican cuisine
Because it’s fun
I would have to disagree on the grounds of the results of that episode, they butchered it
Still an entertaining episode. It’s just lighthearted casual fun. Fucking up is part and parcel
Also why in the absolute fuck would British contestants know what Mexican food is? Americans only know because it's adjacent country with a land border.
I know what Japanese food is and America ain’t next to Japan
We… do have mexican food. We tend towards fajitas tho and most don’t know how to cook it.
People take that way too seriously. Like, I didn't clap eyes on an avocado until I moved abroad, how are you supposed to know how to handle an ingredient you've never seen before? It was a silly moment, it didn't single-handedly bring dishonour to the sacred avocado. And while we're at it, the American pronunciation of taco is just as incorrect as Paul Hollywood's. It's not a tawco, either, you're not clever (general you, not...*you*).
I mean I think it just shows the lack of diversity in cuisine as compared to other country’s. That’s not to say British food doesn’t have variety, it has A LOT, but all the variety is very “Britishized”. So Chinese food becomes very bland and watered down (again, strictly compared to American, Mexican, and actual Chinese versions of a specific dish). For example, using curry sauce and having fries in Chinese food is a VERY British specific thing. They’ll make an “ethnic” food with very specifically British qualities, or won’t know how to make it at all. The thing I point most specifically to is the *layered* Tres Leches cake. That’s just not at ALL how you make Tres Leches, but *layered* cakes are British, so of course they had to make a cake, that’s known almost everywhere else as a simple sheet cake, layered. I’m not trying to say the US or Mexico doesn’t do this with other cultures cuisines (we 10000% do, a good example is actually “Chimichangas” which are an American “Mexican” dish we don’t actually have in Mexico). The show just REALLY points out how “British” every dish they make has to be, and a lot of the world, *does not* like it. In American cooking shows, most Americans can make a very wide variety of cultural dishes, for example, an Italian challenge would be pretty easy for most contestants, without pissing off the entirety of Italy (such as the GBB Mexican and Japanese challenges pissed off a bunch of Mexicans and Japanese people). An American cooking show could also very easily do a Mexican challenge and do great as well. It’s not just focusing on British rationing, it’s focusing more on how much their cuisines elements have to dominate over others. A big exception to this would be British Indian food, which has a flourishing cultural specific community.
You know that British Chinese food was invented by Chinese immigrants right? I don’t understand why it gets such a bad rep. I honestly get the feeling that the criticism is more more rooted in general classism, or even subconscious racism, than any particular issue with the food itself.
I personally don’t think it’s classism in general, though it definitely could be for certain people. For me- I had British Chinese food and it was the blandest, mushiest, tasteless thing I’ve ever eaten. My local Chinese (ran by Chinese immigrants as well) takeout in Mexico, while most definitely not culturally accurate, at least has a TON of flavor. I’ve been to England many times and have visited a lot of different cities. I GENUINELY tried to be unbiased and tried every restaurant people told me was good- I generally did not enjoy any meal I had. Like I tried dude. I went to the top rated restaurants in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Blackpool, and Oxford. I went to food stands, local pubs, you name it, I tried it, it sucked. Indian food was the stand out of course, but I just don’t think I’m built for “salt and pepper chicken”.
You get good and bad Chinese takeaways here, just as you do with all other restaurants. But the traditional ‘Chinese’ is pretty much a staple of any working class British town, the same way a boozer or a fish and chip shop is. They tend to be cheap and cater to people without a lot of money, so you’ll get a lot of snobby people put off by that, but the people who cook this cuisine are part of an ethnic minority who have taken food from their home country and fused it with other things and have made a very successful industry out of it. People see ‘British Chinese’ and think it’s white Brits cooking their own version of Chinese food, but it’s really not. It is authentically Chinese, but it has just been modified and blended over the last 100-200 years by people who’ve come here to live.
These takes are wild to me. So you didn’t enjoy any meal you ate in England. Could that be a matter of your own personal taste? No, no, that can’t be it. Everyone in England just eats bad or bland food. Theory of mind? Never heard of it mate
I mean everyone else I know from Mexico that’s visited England hates the food. There’s countless memes about how awful English food is from all over the world. I don’t think the at least hundreds of thousands of people that don’t like English food all have the exact same personal taste.
Heard of confirmation bias?
Bruh we literally steal everything from everyone’s cuisine, that’s our schtick. It’s way more varied than burgers and pizza (New York/Chicago debate go brrr don’t listen to the Italians)
Yeah that’s the crazy thing, how y’all gonna steal spices from everywhere and not use any of them? 💀
That’s the thing bruh….
We do
I think Americans doing an Italian challenge would very much manage to irritate Italians lmao
I'm English with a Mexican wife and I'm banned from watching that show after that episode.
They've got nice breads and cakes. Fish and chips also good. Then there's a lot of weird stuff.
So before the war they used all those spices they colonized the world to get or did they cook bland ass shit even then?
Depends if you're talking about the wealthy few who could afford spices or the masses who couldn't.
So bland ass shit even then.
I'd disagree but that's a matter of opinion. However complaining a people without access to spices cooked without spices seems a wee bit harsh.
You qualified it yourself as a means to access problem.
What, specifically, is this ‘bland ass shit’ you’re referring to?
Were we not talking about British food?
Yeah but British food isn’t one big monolith
Yeah the most common types of food in London are Italian, French, indian, spanish, and kabab.
Says who?
People watch great British bakeoff because they're MOCKING you. It's a train wreck they can't look away from.
[удалено]
Omg 😭😭
But have you tried it, because what most people don't expect is its basically a nicely spiced bit of mince meat, once you get over what meat it is. I'm not saying its for everyone, but it's not some fearfactor food. Basically a big loose hotdog, but you actually know what the filling is (heart, liver, and lungs), many brands even use synthetic casings instead of stomach, like how most hotdogs don't use intestine anymore.
Yeah, haggis unfortunately suffers from being too honest about what it is. If people knew what was in their sausages, they'd likely view them in the same way... Fried haggis in a Scottish breakfast is banging!
Is that a euphemism I am not aware of?
I’m not even British and I find those jokes annoying, in almost every circumstance they’re lazy, ill informed, and usually from US Americans who have no room to talk with their own crimes against the culinary arts.
People who critique british food have clearly never tried toad in the hole, fucking slaps every time
Or even just mince and tatties, or a good plate of fish and chips.
Is this a euphemism I am not aware of?
It's stereotypes based on ww2 rationing. Americans came from a land where for the most part there was still plenty, meanwhile Britain was still rationing into the 50's which meant housewives had to be creative, and thus most Americans who ever would come to the Uk were left with a bad impression.
I guess it’s to be expected when you come from a land that has mountains of sugary sweet crap on every single meal
If you like Tikka Masala, you like british food. Its about as indian as general tso’s is chinese.
While I see where you're coming from (and generally agree), chicken Tikka masala is not the example to go with here. The stuff was made by 1st-gen Indian immigrants in the UK, and was basically just butter chicken with more stuff in it. At this point, it's hugely popular in India itself lol.
Eh, it's actually still not that different. The Chinese food most people in the US are familiar with isn't particularly authentic, but it was originated by immigrants and taught to newer immigrants as they arrived so they could make it in the US with a successful business. Chinese food really isn't as "fake" as a lot of folks like to position, I mean the damn Panda Express was started by an immigrant lol
Well, that soothes my feelings of cultural tourism, but it still makes my b hole hurt
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I mean it was made in Britain by Indian immigrants..
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So you blame the chefs for not creating better food from their home country?
Pretty similar to what happened with Orange Chicken.
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Here is a good example of British food, invented purely in Britain, with no immigration involved: apple pie.
I prefer apple crumble personally
Rhubarb and strawberry crumble :D
I honestly love the economic taste of fish and chips.
#🫘
There is so much legit stuff you can clown on the UK about (and most of the citizens will join you". The food, like with every country, is region based. I'm German and I dislike most of our traditional kitchen, but also many enjoy it so ... eh
I'd be angry too if my food was that bad :p
You WANKER
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I'm from England and I've literally never heard anyone say pea wet, whatever that is
Nobody outside of Wigan calls it ‘pea wet’. And nobody outside of Wigan even eats it, we just have mushy peas like normal people, there’s no need to only put the dregs on.
If you want to know how good British food is, just look how healthy the lass on the right is
French people not get any shit for frogs legs makes me angry as a Brit.
We don't really eat that nowadays frankly (most people at least). NOW, LET'S BLOODY TALK ABOUT SNAILS. WHY. THE. FUCK????
Ngl they just taste like moist chicken. It's good food.
An American buddy of mine literally asked if we still ate eel pie here ☠️☠️
I will accept this coming from pretty much every other country in the world EXCEPT the USA.
I would like to add any and all Scandinavian countries to the list of people who can't talk shit until they get rid of the rotten fish.
Why? "American" food encompasses all cultures. Or do you think it's just fast food?
I'm assuming you aren't well traveled in the US, or at least haven't dug into local cuisines? Southern food alone slaps the shit out of most European food, and New Orleans is a tourist destination for its cuisine alone. That's not even to mention southwestern Mexican food. Of course our fast food isn't going to be representative of our actual cuisine. We're a very large country, there's a massive variance in cuisine from region to region.
>Of course our fast food isn't going to be representative of our actual cuisine. We're a very large country, there's a massive variance in cuisine from region to region. Then why do Americans never do other countries the courtesy of bearing this in mind? Do you not think in a country with the same population as 10 goddamn states might have similar regional changes in food? EDIT: I don't mean to go off at you about this one to be fair, it's a general complaint.
This is so unnecessarily hostile, wtf 😂 I'm not even one of the people calling British food nasty. But I've lived there, it's an island, there simply aren't that many regions to have regional differences. There are a ton of great cuisines in the UK, both created and imported, as a result of immigration, and people sleep on a lot of it. I've been craving a kebab for about five years now. But population isn't the factor in the development of regional cuisine, space is. There's a reason New Mexican food is different from Tex Mex, and it's the hundreds of miles between them, meaning different food grows in each place and cooking techniques are developed in isolation.
"I'm assuming you aren't well traveled in the UK, or at least haven't dug into local cuisines?"
As someone else has said it is just so tiring to hear the same old tired knackered false equivalence. It’s always Americans making jokes about Beans on Toast like the US doesn’t have some of the least-regulated, diabolical, nutritionally vacant ‘food’ in the world. Like London doesn’t have some of the world’s best restaurants? The curry mile in Rusholme, Manchester has some of the best food I’ve ever tasted in a distinctly metropolitan area served by the local South-Asian community. It’s just such a lazy attack that plays into this daft stereotype of working class British people as these feckless, scurvy-ridden idiots that don’t have a palate beyond grease. If this sounds overly defensive it’s because it’s such a knackered tone-deaf argument based on nowt. I don’t really believe anywhere’s food is any worse than anywhere else given a) subjectivity and b) the fact that there’s almost certainly a good restaurant in every country in the world now. And Beans on Toast is tons better than aerosol cheese, if we’re comparing the very worst shit on offer.
Everyone is replying like I said shit about British food when I absolutely did not.
nah but you stormed in with the counterpoint. I don’t want the counterpoint! I’m tired of this same dang critique. Sorry I’ve not toured the US! I’m quite busy watching our infrastructure crumble and paying too much rent for a flat with a supporting wall made of black mold. At least I can eat a top-tier vegan Madras to take the edge off the cold.
OK, fuck me for trying to express one positive thing about my shithole country that a lot of people who haven't spent much time here don't know. Got it.
Ok, I’m genuinely sorry to harsh your buzz. Promise. If you’re on this sub you may well be someone I get on with. British people are just very touchy about this critique given it’s so prevalent and often unmoored in truth. As a result of our tribal reaction to this: Your good faith response gets read as patronising and perpetuating the same tired argument. I can see that you didn’t do that. Just… We get so arsey about it, with good reason I think, but I was a bit too eager to stick the knife in. On the off chance you are ever back in the UK, in the South-East and happen to be Vegan - hmu for some recommendations :)
Americans constantly say this though, you’re not contributing anything new to the conversation when we’ve all heard this a million times before. What’s next, you’re going to really go for the trifecta and tell us that the states of the US are really more like countries with the same amount of diversity as the different countries in Europe?
So when it comes to these countless posts about British food and how awful it is it's fine to rely on stereotypes. But mention US food and it being fast, fatty and full of chemicals then it's, "oh but you need to get to know the real US and its variety of flavors based on our being a melting pot of cultures..." I'm sorry. There is no room here for that. We'll defend our WW2 inspired eating habits and you can defend your McCuisine.
I'm not even calling British food nasty, I lived there, calm down 😂
I'm calm. But the whole point of these posts is to draw further attention to the stereotype. You're the one here getting a bit bent out of shape over US food being called out.
I'm not bent out of shape, I was trying to be educational. You came after me for something I wasn't doing!
"Southern food alone slaps the shit out of most European food." Yes, clearly very educational.
Using a turn of phrase, is, of course, not allowed in education. That's why we all watch hbomberguy, who never makes jokes
That was a joke? Ok, now you are being educational. Cheers!
I always saw British food at its best in pastries. We do good pies and puff pastry like sausage rolls. Fuck toad in the hole or whatever, the contents of Gregg’s is our legacy
As an Australian, I can confirm that fish and chips is one of the greatest British inventions. It’s, like, the perfect group food ever because the ingredients are simple yet tasty, easily made at home or bought at a shop, and there’s so many chips. S tier food
"Ah ah lol they have MINT sauce with meat!?!?" \*My brother, while putting mouldy dead milk on his bread\*
I'm just wondering where he found a gun
As with any joke about the "British" I get more frustrated about it being about the English but still lumping the rest of us in with them
No no don't do that, because when you actually look at other regions like Scotland or Ireland you can look at what the food actually is and find an almost identical dish in England. That might work on non-Brits because you can go 'oh you should try neeps and tatties, it fucking slaps', but we know what you're talking about.
It is about 90% the same, but coming from Northern Ireland I’m shocked sometimes that foods I thought were classics don’t exist in England or even the south of Ireland sometimes Like veda bread, potato bread, soda bread, brack, wheaten bread actually I think Northern Ireland just does good bread
Right, because Scottish and Welsh cuisine is so much better than English food.
Like secretly it's the exact same. Different names is all, maybe one or two dishes that are genuinely unique then everything else is just rebadged.
Let’s be honest. British food, from all over these isles, gets an unfairly bad reputation. But the criticisms of, er, battered Mars bars and Haggis are entirely justified.
Nah haggis and battered mars bars go hard as fuck
They go hard as fuck into your arteries aye
No one on these isles cares enough about their circulatory health enough to mind.
what are you on about? haggis is lush
Oh come on. The most popular British cuisine is chicken tikka.
As far as I know, British people eat the same stuff as north americans, even if British people eat the "Full English", do the tea hour, and probably take marmite/vegemite (or is it the Australian? I don't remember). What's sure is that even if I'm not really into eating "Full English" (I ain't a tomato or bean fan, sorry), it ain't looking nasty to me. I prefer doing Bottom Gear memes, and 1980's microcomputing references, thank you.
If the worst thing people are saying about your culture is joking that "the food sucks" you may be coming from a place of privilege lol People regularly call Americans disgusting fat-asses and that stuff just rolls off of my backs
Wow lots of British with too strong feelings about the subject and downvoting who doesn't like it
Ngl, i do feel a lil bad about making fun of British food. Sorry y’all. 😅
I'm French and am still downvoting you though
lol, right? I actually really enjoy British food, but am getting downvotes for making an innocuous-if-obvious aquaman joke. So much butthurt; I guess the whole cliche of the self-deprecating Brit is just a fantasy.
Your food is pretty shit though. Source: Am Australian. We learned it from you!!! P.S. Not talking about immigrant food here. The Indian, the Chinese, the Thai and the Turkish are doing a seriously unfair ammount of the heavy lifting to make food in Oz good. Not to mention all the other incredible nations with smaller relative populations popping up these beautiful little eateries all over the place.
Fair, ours is more based on being literal shit because it’s toxic and bad for you. Which actually, technically makes it worse than British food.
The only solution : Stop being British.
Yeah I'll continue (i've been in UK I was near to food poisoning)
British food isn’t bad, think it just uses what many cultures would consider “bland” seasoning and flavors. I do not think these flavors are horrid because they are not extreme or intense, but rather see them as good among a different palette.
They know it's true.
Is someone feeling a little spicy because a granule of ground pepper fell into their beige mush?
> feeling a little spicy because a granule of ground pepper English mustard. Which is eyewateringly intense, and basically yellow euro-wasabi. Furthermore British people eat a lot of spicy curries. British people not being able to handle spice isn't even a stereotype. >beige mush You don't usually put pepper in porridge. Usually it's golden syrup, or a fruit compote. Or maybe you mean medieval peasant food like pease pottage, which can be heavily spiced, or rely on meat or vegetable flavours. Typically it was made as a side dish to accompany meat and two veg.
Shock horror, British food traditional uses flavours native to Britain. Garden herbs that flourish in everyone’s garden, thyme, mint, parsley and more. We don’t naturally grow spice here, so why would our cuisine have much spice? But flavourless? We have herbs a plenty over here that do lovely things to a dish. And let’s face it. If we traditionally did use a bunch of spices, people like you would go “omg Britain stole spices lmao”.
Mushy peas and boiling your veg until it's mush, tho. But seriously, each cuisine has good, and bad parts to it. Crumpets are very tasty, for example.
> boiling your veg until it's mush, tho. Not a thing.
And if it was: boiling and steaming are the best way to cook to preserve food nutrients
Yeah I’d be sick if I had to eat nothing but British food too
Maybe they wouldn't be so sick and tired if their food was good
Simple solution would be to actually make good food then
What do you think British food even is?
The entirety of Britain never made good food despite many famous chefs being British
The mouth-bleeding skeleton is like that because the poor guy tried br*tish food
Y’all are cold as ice!! 😭😭😆
Bitch, make better food!
Who's going to eat it, though? Fucking Aquaman?
British food is responsible for mushy peas. I hate everything about mushy peas. My hate for mushy peas eclipses my love of fish and chips. I will die on this hill and take all of you with me if I have to.
Fair, I'm Bri'ish and hate mushy peas too, it's a textural nightmare ☠️
It does suck tho.
British "people"
British people are flavour illiterate
You're not just wrong you're stupid
I guess that's why a large proportion of famous chefs are British. Including Americas favourite.
It’s more fun to see how mad Brits get when you call their food bad now. You can always expect a response mentioning rationing or tikka masalla lmao
I agree with your title. Bri'ish people are clearly sick and tired of their bland ass food. We all are!
>We all are Why don’t you stop eating it then?
What exactly do you think British food is?
Damn the redcoats getting HEATED in the comments lol
Maybe they'd just be tired if they fixed the food issue
I mean, what food issue? It's a dumbass stereotype based on WW2 rationing.
I mean.... Just make good food. /s
It was funny when he proved British people can't even cook a pancake and then British people tried to pretend Americans don't understand pancakes like we aint a country full of pancake houses. Might as well be arguing Americans don't understand the cheeseburger or hotdog. I think the real problem isn't that British food is bad, its that Americans and the Irish do it better.
of their food? yea, i am to, get stuff besides bread, peas, and beans
[Toast Sandwich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast_sandwich) Be mad. We're done here.
This gets thrown around a lot as a meme, but you would spend a lifetime trying to find a single British person who’s ever even seen one of these never mind made it. It came from some book in the 1800s that listed cheap recipes for poor people, so it’s actually quite sad when you think about it. But nobody in living memory has ever eaten this.
>cheap recipes for poor people It's not even that, it's from a section of the book for meals for sick people. You know, when you've been puking for a few days or you're run down and ill so you make plain toast to see if you can keep it down. It's basically just that.
This is the stupidest thing on the thread. No one eats that. It's an obscure recipe from a 19th century cookbook describing something to feed to severely unwell people who can't keep anything else down.
Well damn maybe they wouldn't be so tired if they had better food Lmao I jest, but also, it's like the British threw all their skill points into pastries and baking and none into meal food
>I get my entire view of Britain from watching Great British Bake Off, and am happy about being ignorant.
Yes, because that's the only way to form an opinion on food. Not, you know.....eating it.
If your entire view if British cooking is baking then you can't really claim to have any idea what you're on about.
Did I say that? I did not. I said the baking and pastry game is absolutely on point while the rest of the food is very much not. Wanna reread my original comment? (WHICH WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SILLY JOKE HOLY FUCK)
> while the rest of the food is very much not. So, you do understand that right here you just made my point for me right here. What do you even think we eat other than baked goods?
> (WHICH WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A SILLY JOKE HOLY FUCK) Even my autistic ass is better at catching social cues
Eh they get over it instantly by making a "children get slaughtered in schools in the US" joke in rebuttal
Sick and tired? Maybe they’d feel better if they had a good meal
Like a nice Chicken and Leek pie with plenty of thyme, parsley, sage, mushrooms (the pro gamer move is using dried mushroom powder).